Investor Talk

Hosted by Epic Angels

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Jun 2026

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Epic Angels is globally the largest women-only angel investment network, investing in APAC & LATAM. Epic Angels provides women with a platform to invest, learn, and help incubate more female angel investors who want to be part of the thriving startup scene. This show demystifies angel investing by allowing you to look behind the scenes, meet the startup founders, hear from the investors, and learn about the world of venture capital. Hosted by investors Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

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40 recent

June 10, 202647 min

Oraan - Giving Pakistan's 60 million unbanked women their first financial identity

In Pakistan, bank CEOs have a ready answer for why women don't have access to credit. They call them "not economically viable." So 60 million women built their own system. No bank needed. No credit score. No permission. $14 billion moves through these informal savings circles every year — entirely in cash, entirely invisible to the formal economy.In this episode, we speak with Halima Iqbal, founder and CEO of Oraan — a Pakistan-based fintech that digitised that $14 billion system, and then found something even bigger hiding inside it.Oraan's digital committees platform has 600,000 users and a lifetime default rate of 1.89% — compared to 12-13% at microfinance banks. These women are the best credit risk in Pakistan. The formal system just never looked. In November 2025, Oraan launched Oraan Gold — fractional gold savings starting at $10 a month, price locked at first payment, physical delivery when the plan completes. In seven months, the gold book grew 74 times. On minimal marketing spend.Oraan holds a full NBFC licence and is expanding its savings and wealth stack into other emerging markets through partnerships with financial institutions.Their vision: financial inclusion for women — not just in Pakistan, but across every emerging market where women have been told their money doesn't matter.Angel investor Sarah Fairhurst joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast (minute 33:00).Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

May 21, 20261 hr 6 min

Living Roots - Data driven biological fertilizer that boosts yields and regenerates soil

Listen to the story of Avika Narula and Abhi Agarwal from Living Roots. Based in Thailand, they taking on the large and real-world problem of food safety. Growing pressure on soil health, rising fertilizer costs and supply chain fragility, fuels the demand for regenerative agriculture. Living Roots tackles this problem by starting from first principles in science and farming economics by combining biology, agronomy, local manufacturing, and AI-assisted formulation to create what they call “crop protocols”: a system of biological products paired with an intelligence layer that adapts formulations by crop type, soil conditions, and growth stage. Their goal is to help farmers improve yields, reduce dependency on synthetic fertilizers, and restore soil health, while maintaining or improving farmer profitability. Angel investor Megha Jindal joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast (minute 53:30).Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

April 27, 202655 min

Sehat Kahani - Getting a doctor to Pakistan's 240 million — in 60 seconds

In Pakistan, 36% of women never see a doctor in their entire lifetime. The doctors exist — Pakistan trains more female doctors than male. But 80% never practice after marriage. They're called "doctor brides." The supply is there. The connection isn't.In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sara and Dr. Iffat — both physicians, both former "doctor brides" — who built Sehat Kahani (meaning "story of health"), a digital health platform connecting female doctors to patients across Pakistan in 60 seconds. B2B model: corporates and insurers pay a flat fee, employees get instant access via app. And for areas where the nearest doctor is 100km away, 82 telemedicine clinics on the ground. Nearly 5 million consultations, 1,200 corporate partners, a Harvard Business School case study, and the first all-female team in Pakistan to close a Series A. Now expanding to the UAE — contracts signed, doctors licensed, GCC market growing 21% a year.Their vision: quality primary healthcare for everyone, everywhere — powered by women doctors who refused to give up their careers.Followed by Investor Talk with Karin Welbrock, executive leadership coach and one of Epic Angels' most active angel investors.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

April 1, 202651 min

TripWip - The carsharing platform bringing Turo-style mobility to Latin America's 650 million people

The average car in Latin America sits idle 90% of the time. Renting one still means queuing at a counter, signing paper forms, and arguing about insurance. For 650 million people, that is still the only option.In this episode, we speak with Juan Manuel Pancic and Juan Andrés Vico — MIT-trained data scientist and tech lead veteran of BlackRock and McDonald's — about TripWip, the peer-to-peer carsharing app turning idle cars into income across Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay. 23 months in: 130,000 users, 4X year-on-year growth, and Toyota, Kia, and Turo insiders already at the cap table. We also hear from COO and first-ever employee Sabina Balestrino on building a team across three countries.Followed by Investor Talk with #EpicInvestor Luisa Ladrón de Guevara, former Head of Operations Latin America at Uber.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

March 22, 20261 hr 2 min

Samay - The AI wearable bringing hospital-grade lung diagnostics to billions of people

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. 550 million people have it. 80% don't know — because the only reliable test requires an $80,000 machine, a specialist, and 40 minutes of forced breathing that many patients simply cannot do. Most people find out they have COPD after they've already lost 40% of their lung function.In this episode, we speak with Colombia / Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Dr. Maria Artunduaga and Ricardo Garcia — a Harvard and Berkeley-trained physician-scientist and an MIT-educated audio engineer who spent a decade at Google — about Sylvee, the world's first AI-powered active acoustic wearable for lung diagnostics. The device presses against your chest, sends sound waves into your lungs, and delivers clinical-grade results in under five minutes. No specialist, no lab, no forced breathing. Validated in Protected by 18 granted patents, and already generating commercial contracts with global respiratory pharma Chiesi and strategic investment from Suramericana, the fourth largest health insurer in Latin America.Their vision: bring hospital-grade lung diagnostics to the one billion people worldwide living with respiratory disease — from any setting, anywhere in the world.Followed by Investor Talk with #EpicInvestor Paula Restrepo.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

February 26, 202653 min

Alkemio - Reinventing Rare Earth Refining

Alkemio is an Argentina-based deep tech company rethinking rare earth refining at a time when global supply chains are under pressure. With over 90% of refining capacity concentrated in China, industries and governments are seeking independent access to critical minerals essential for EVs, semiconductors, defense systems, and energy transition infrastructure.In this episode, we speak with founders Federico Pereyra Bonnet and Ailin Svagzdys, about the company’s proprietary molecular recognition platform and its modular, climate-friendly, refining model as an alternative to capital-heavy legacy plants. With a 15-year commercial framework in place at Iron Duke Mine, Alkemio is positioning itself at the intersection of science, geopolitics, and infrastructure.Followed by Investor Talk with Laetitia Marcadé, our Investment Committee, #EpicInvestor, and principal at Dalus Capital, the lead investor.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

February 9, 20261 hr 0 min

TeenCare - Emotional AI changing how parents understand their teenagers

TeenCare is a Vietnam-based technology company rethinking how families support teenagers during the most difficult years of growing up. As academic pressure, digital exposure, and emotional challenges intensify, parents are expected to guide their children with little real-time insight into what their teens are actually experiencing.TeenCare tackles this by combining live human mentors with AI-powered personalization. Weekly 1-on-1 mentoring sessions generate real behavioral data, which the platform translates into ongoing insights about each child’s motivations, triggers, and patterns. Instead of generic advice or one-off solutions, parents receive continuous, personalized guidance tailored to their teenager.Founded by Linh Hoang, who previously scaled WeGrow to 80,000 paid students, TeenCare scaled to an ARR of 1 million USD in just nine months, and has been cash flow positive since May 2025. Backed by Ascend Vietnam Ventures and Iterative, the company is now expanding into the Philippines and Singapore. In this episode, we explore how emotional AI is reshaping parenting, why trust is central to TeenCare’s model, and what this means for the future of family and youth development.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

February 9, 202644 min

Givvable - The data layer behind trusted supplier decisions

Companies rely on thousands of suppliers, yet struggle to answer a simple question: do we really know who we’re doing business with right now? With 2,677 ESG and sustainability policies globally, supplier diligence has become a moving target, turning supplier intelligence into core enterprise infrastructure.Givvable addresses this by embedding continuously verified supplier data directly into procurement, ERP, and risk systems. Instead of one-off surveys or static reports, enterprises can continuously screen, vet, and assess suppliers using trusted credential data at the point where decisions are actually made.In this episode, Frances Atkins and Naomi Vowels, co-founders of Givvable, share how they built a supplier intelligence platform now supporting 65+ enterprise customers across APAC, the US, and the UK, and why supplier data is becoming unavoidable infrastructure in an increasingly regulated world.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

November 21, 20251 hr 0 min

Neem - building the Stripe of Pakistan for 250 million people

Neem is a Pakistan-based fintech startup building the payments infrastructure that simply doesn't exist in the world's fifth largest country. While 71% of transactions still happen in cash, businesses juggle 10+ payment providers just to collect money or pay vendors. Neem has built the full stack: collections, disbursements, branded wallets, and unified reconciliation—all through a single API.Founded by Vladimira, Nadeem, and Naeem—a former fintech accelerator builder, the ex-CEO of Pakistan's largest fintech JazzCash, and a former Pakistani Minister of Investment—Neem went live in January 2025 and already powers 50+ enterprise clients including the country's largest logistics provider (2 million packages/day), three top insurers, and healthcare platforms serving millions of patients.With digital transactions growing 40% year over year and government backing the shift to cashless, Neem is laying the financial rails for 2.5 million+ underserved businesses in a market where Stripe, Razorpay, and Adyen don't operate.Angel investor Mahrukh Qadeer joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast.Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

October 11, 202550 min

Eolic Wall - making wind energy as accessible and scalable as solar

Eolic Wall is a Peru-based renewable energy startup revolutionizing distributed wind generation. While 40% of solar capacity is distributed, less than 1% of wind energy is—because traditional turbines need massive scale to be efficient. Eolic Wall has cracked the code with the Eolic Cell, a 2x2x2 meter modular wind system that delivers utility-scale efficiency with 20x the power density of solar.Founded by Natalia and Alfredo, former bankers turned deep tech innovators, Eolic Wall uses proprietary aerodynamic geometry and magnetic levitation to achieve the same levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as traditional large-scale turbines—but in a compact, stackable format perfect for buildings, factories, and data centers.Angel investor Anna Itkin joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast.Hosted by Maaike Doyer, founder of Epic Angels.